When LLMs feel sentient or intelligent, that's your brain playing a trick on you.

Sentient = prob a trick

Intelligent? Maybe a broken clock is right twice a day?

You write a sentence that don’t sound too good. You pretty much know how an author you respect would write it, but can’t remember the syntax & word choice exactly. You ask a model for a dozen revisions of the sentence in disparate styles. One of them clicks: “ooh! That’s what I mean!”

Am I being pedantic to say the LLM can feel intelligent when it nails the exact word choice you were looking for, better than half your social circle could’ve written it? Half your friends aren’t dumb, but the LLM can sometimes sound better than them, so you think: “yeah sounds intelligent!”

Of course…

Later it totally misunderstands some context, needs unbelievable hand-holding and still doesn’t get it, confabulates moronically… and it’s back to stupid! Mmmm glue pizza